In his state of the city address on March 12, Newark mayor Ras Baraka made employee ownership a centerpiece of his economic policy. Baraka said, "We are encouraging employee ownership, and residential- and worker-owned cooperatives. As a beginning, the Council just passed an ordinance that's the first of its kind. It encourages employee ownership for Newark-based businesses. Company owners that are looking to sell or retire from their businesses will have an option of applying to the city for a loan or loan guarantee when transferring ownership to employees. We have begun to engage businesses about this idea, where workers can collectively buy the business with no personal investment but receive ownership as a part of their employee benefit package."